Old Vic Theatre in London to appoint diversity specialists

The Old Vic in London has vowed to appoint a diversity specialists after it revealed that it has no black staff.

It released workplace figures to improve transparency and boost equality yesterday in a bid to be open about the ethnic background of its staff.

Bosses aligned the theatre with the the Pull Up for Change initiative started by Sharon Chuter, the black CEO and founder of UOMA Beauty, earlier this week, which calls on major brands to reveal how many black people they employ.

The theatre in Waterloo announced eight ‘immediate commitments’ to the campaign, including appointing diversity specialists to support it in its work.

The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo, London, has vowed to appoint a diversity specialists after it revealed that it has no black staff

The theatre released workplace figures to improve transparency and boost equality yesterday but the findings revealed 89 per cent of its staff are white

The Old Vic Tweeted: ‘Rather than present assumptions, we present the accurate data below for 2019-2020 alongside eight immediate commitments to progress in our equality and diversity work.

‘We support @TheatreCTA’s call for information on Black representation across theatre and the cultural sector.

The immediate commitments being made by the Old Vic as part of the #PULLUPORSHUTUP campaign

1. To share data regarding its workforce in response to the #pulluporshutup campaign.

2. To more robustly collate and interrogate data across the whole organisation including creative teams.

3. To appoint diversity specialists to support it in its work.

4. To hold open forum sessions with its people and creative colleagues to hear directly from them about how they can work together to create positive change.

5. To work with its people to explore ways of giving equal access to The Old Vic, be that on stage, back of house or in the audience.

6. To shape and implement a thoughtful, meaningful and robust equality and diversity strategy.

7. To reaffirm that it has zero tolerance of harassment and bullying for any reason, and continue to enshrine this in its culture through training and support structures.

8. To redouble its efforts to further diversify our workforce and Board, supporting career progression and training schemes where relevant.

‘The publishing of this data is the first step in The Old Vic’s renewed focus on diversity across all areas of our work #PULLUPORSHUTUP.’

In a statement, the theatre added: ‘The Old Vic is moved and inspired by global calls for wide scale change to the centuries of inequality and oppression faced by Black people.

‘The work that was underway before our closure cannot be put on pause in the current crisis.

‘We will move forward apace with our commitments, drawing on the culture of openness, collaboration, compassion, healing and respect we have worked hard to instil more broadly at The Old Vic.’

But when the theatre – which has hosted actors including Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith – posted the results, the number of black employees was zero.

Six per cent of staff were dubbed ‘mixed’, just three per cent asian, two per cent declared themselves ‘other’ and a staggering 89 per cent identified as white.

Meanwhile among senior management, 100 per cent of employees are white.

And of the board, eight per cent were black, 17 per cent mixed, and 75 per cent white.

The theatre also made its gender divide public, declaring 71 per cent of staff female, 25 per cent male, four per cent non binary and three per cent transgender.

Of senior management, 77 per cent are female and 23 per cent male, and of the board 58 per cent are female and 42 per cent male.

The theatre, in Waterloo, south London, has said it is committed to improving equality and has said it will employ diversity experts to help it meet new targets.

It has said that publishing the data is the ‘first step’ towards improving things.

The Old Vic has been approached for comment.

Today, it was revealed The Old Vic rebuffed an attempt to take it over several weeks ago.

The Ambassador Theatre Group approached Matthew Warchus, the Old Vic’s artistic chief, offering to take over the theatre’s liabilities — injecting millions into the property — while leaving Vic staff to control artistic policy.

The offer was ‘declined immediately and definitively’, The Old Vic said in a statement released to The Daily Mail yesterday.

The Old Vic, one of London’s landmark theatres, has rebuffed an attempt to take it over. A few seasons back, Glenda Jackson (above) played to capacity audiences in the title role of King Lear

The 202-year-old institution relies on deep-pocketed supporters and ticket sales to survive. Daniel Radcliffe was appearing there in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame when lockdown forced the theatre to close

Kylie Cosmetics revealed on Sunday that 47% of its employees are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and 13% are Black as part of the Pull Up for Change initiative

The theatre is not the only company to have signed up to the #PULLUPORSHUTUP campaign, with Kylie Jenner facing backlash for the lack of diversity at Kylie Cosmetics yesterday.

Her company revealed only 13 per cent of its employees are black, causing backlash on social media.

In the statement shared on Instagram, Kylie Cosmetics revealed that 47 per cent of its employees are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), 53 per cent are white, and 100 per cent are women-identifying.

Kylie Cosmetics said the company plans on bringing on more black content creators and influencers.

It vowed to do better to promote even more diversity within the brand when it revealed the ethnic breakdown of its employees.